I think one of the difficult things about
building a Zenith kit is poor directions.
There's no order to the "manual" so you kind
of have to think about what order things
need done.

I was working on the top
window, but after watching the HomeBuilt
Help DVD, it looks like I might want to wait
until the front windshield is on. But I
can't put that on until the cage, panel,
firewall, and top skin are ready to install.

I can't install the cage until I remove
it and spray Corrosion X on the inside. And
in order to install the top skin, I need to
make the four L brackets that go under the
skin. I tried to do this a while ago when it
was all on the plane, but one person can't
do it because I can't hold the bracket under
the skin and at the same time be on the
outside to drill the holes through the skin.

To make the L brackets, I decided to
build the front of the plane 'off' of the
plane. So here you see the panel, firewall,
and top skin assembled.

Unfortunately for me, Zenith was not very
careful when they fluted the panel and
firewall because some of the flutes are
extremely close to the holes.

As you can see here, I've had to cut the
corner off the L and also bend the end to
fit around the flute.

At the bottom where it attaches under the
firewall, the hole is about halfway up the
flute! Look carefully at this photo and you
can see that I cut a slot in the L, and then
bent the end up and around the flute.

This lets it sit flush with the skin.

The two side L's also have to be fluted
because in this area the skin is curved. I
fluted this L and got it perfect the first
try! Pure luck but it fits to the curve of
the skin absolutely perfectly. Tomorrow I'll
do the other side and probably screw it up.